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Thursday, 26 May 2016

Create Purposefully: Matone de Chiwit

I have had the pleasure of being able to watch my students develop a relationship with Karishma Bhagani, an NYU student from Kenya who is the founder of Matone De Chiwit. I shared about her desire to bring her invention of an inexpensive water purifier back to Kenya and to other countries desperately in need of clean water in The Precarious and Powerful. I used that title because I wanted to get across that with connection comes risk. . .but also power. I ended the post with a caveat about relationships: don't go into them blindly, but don't let fear stop you from making them.

As the month has carried on, my students have been working collaboratively to make responses to Karishma and her passionate provocation of helping aid the task of getting clean water to those who don't have access to it. Without further ado, here are some of our purposeful creations to help Karishma's campaign to provide clean water in the areas that most need it.

Commercial to raise awareness about water scarcity and to raise support

"We wanted to create this poster to see if Karishma Bhagani, the person the created the water filtration system, would like to use it for advertising her project. In our poster we included what Karishma made, who it is for, and most importantly what YOU can do to help."

Social Media Campaigns

"Karishma said that she had people working on her Instagram. We thought since Karishma didn’t need someone to make her an Instagram, that we should help promote what Karishma is doing to help."

Work on the Website Creation

"For the Matone De Chiwit, Hailey, Athena and myself are working on a website to spread awareness about Karishma’s campaign. we have been working very hard on the website design so far with Karishma. we have been back and forth for a couple weeks over email."

In Connections-based Learning, its relationships that are the focus. Each facet of the teaching and learning process leverages connection for learning. Whether it is the gathering of information from experts, the formation of meaningful creations that serve a purpose, the sharing out of the process, or the feedback received by others, connection is at the heart. I hope that you can see in these responses how connection is not just weaved in throughout the process but provides the foundation for each action. Purposeful creations stem from connection as we serve, support, partner and question those with whom we connect.

We are so thankful to be able to have the opportunity to partner with Karishma and help fight against global water scarcity. We wish her well as she continues to be a force for positive change in this world!